Microelectronic devices commonly contain a plurality of semiconductor chips. These chips often have a flat, rectangular body with a large front face having contacts connected to the internal circuitry of the chip. Each individual chip may be contained in a package having external terminals which, in turn, are electrically connected to a circuit panel such as a printed circuit board and which connects the contacts of the chip to conductors of the circuit panel. Alternatively, the chips may be stacked upon one another in an electrically connected assembly, so as to limit the footprint of chips on the circuit board.
It is common for the plurality of semiconductor chips to act in concert as an array of semiconductor chips, with one of the semiconductor chip acting as a master chip to control the transmission of data to and from the other slave chips. These master chips contain circuitry that is not present in the slave chips, such as serializer/deserializers for controlling the flow of input/output signals. Accordingly, in these assemblies only the master chip may perform the operations required of the master chip. If that particular chip ceases to function properly, the entire array of semiconductor chips may be rendered inoperable.